Preface

TO THE REVISED EDITION

My interest in the history of Orange Walk began with the
work done by the late AlejoAyuso
back in the 1960’s.Since then I have
avidly read every primary and secondary source I have been able to locate that
dealt with Orange Walk.I procured
copies of documents from British Army Archives and from Archives in London
and in Jamaica.I made good use of my visits to the Belizean
National Archives in Belmopan, and
had copies made of maps that I found in the Survey Department collection.I read and filed every reference to Orange
Walk history that I came across in history books, and periodicals of all sorts.

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In
addition, I interviewed many of the older residents of town including Mr.
Eugene Flowers and Mr. Felipe Magaña.I am grateful for their accounts of the
earlier days and for their kindness in sharing the legends passed on to them.

The historical writing of AlejoAyuso; both that which he
published and those unpublished materials which he entrusted to me, have also
been much utilized.

Writing a history such as this is a matter of
combining all these sources into one coherent story.I have had to decide, in some cases, between
two conflicting reports, and I have had to decide what to include and what to
omit.Throughout I have concentrated on
the story of Orange Walk and limited myself to those aspects of national
history which directly develop or illuminate that story.I have not, for example, presented a detailed
history of the Maya, nor have I developed the topic of slavery.These and similar broad areas have already
been amply treated by other historians whose works are readily available in Belize.

Despite the care with which the first edition was
prepared and the widespread attention it gained, I have been surprised by the
persistence of several glaring inaccuracies in various publications and in the
minds of some people with whom I have talked.These errors center around the famous battle of
1872, which is the best known and most popular occurrence in the town’s
history.

In writing the account of the battle, I made
substantial use of two primary sources: the official account in the regimental
History published in 1885, and the testimony of residents, taken down by the
Orange Walk magistrate shortly after the battle, telling what they had
observed.The latter material is in the
National Archives.Both of these
references are available to any interested reader.

Some of the more widespread errors: (a) Marcus Canul attacked the Forts in Orange Walk.The battle was fought in 1872 and the Forts
were not built until 1874 and 1876.This
is well documented.(b) Marcus Canul was an honourable man
merely fighting for the rights of his people.There is an element of truth here, but one wonders if Canul himself perceived his role in this light.Remember that he is credited with many
robberies, burnings, and pillagings, that he held
people for ransom on several occasions and even killed his hostages, and that
he and him men burned part of Orange Walk and looted some of the inhabitants in
the process.This was no altruistic
Robin Hood!(c) There was more than one
group of soldiers involved.The
so-called “Africans” were the enlisted men of the British West India Regiment
(actually Jamaicans) all blacks.They
were under the command of a British (white) officer.This followed Army practice throughout the
Empire.The officers were invariably
British, and the enlisted men natives.

A last note on the battle;
if Canul did not attack the Forts, just what did he
attack?The Regimental records contain a map of the
battle site.This matches precisely an
early map of Orange Walk, which I located in the Survey Office, and is
corroborated by most of the oral and written evidence.The old barracks were built on a hill just in
front of the present B.E.C. building.That was the center of town in those days and that was what Canul attacked.

In revising the first edition, I made use of newly
published research on the Maya – notably the discoveries at the Cuello Site.I also
rearranged several chapters with a review toward improving readability and
corrected minor errors.

I would like to thank Fr. Richard Buhler, S.J. for
his kind assistance with the first edition and for his encouragement in
preparing this second edition.I am
grateful to him and to BISRA for permission to use the final chapters which
were originally published in “Belizean Studies”.

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1. THE MAYA

Based on recent excavations just outside
Orange Walk (at the site called Cuello), the earliest
residents of the area date back to 2500 B.C.These people cleared the virgin forests and,
utilizing methods of advanced agriculture, which included raised, irrigated
fields, planted their corn and root crops.Upon this early foundation was built the great
Maya civilization in this land which they came to call Acalan
– the land of the canoe people.

The classic period of the ancient Maya began around
325 A.D. and flourished for the next 600 years.It was during these centuries that the temples seen around Orange Walk
were built and that the society and culture of the Maya reached their highest
point of development.It was then that
relative peace reigned in the various city-states, which stretched back into Peten and northward into Yucatan.And it was then that the farmers, following
the directions of the priest-nobles, constructed ever larger and more beautiful
temples.Artisans also developed their
skills in carving, painting, weaving and pottery making.

Around 925 A.D. the Maya civilization collapsed for
reasons that are still debated.In Yucatan, in the area of Chichen-Itza, it was later revived by the coming of the Toltecs who introduced changes.The Maya in Acalan,
however, were not strongly influenced by the Toltecs
and they continued to live their simple lives amid the ruins of their former
greatness.From day to day and from
decade to decade they followed the seasons with their milpas
until they were touched by the coming of the Europeans.

The lives of the present-day Maya in the villages of
Orange Walk District (at least a few years ago – before the advent of sugar
cane as a major crop) closely resemble the way the ancient Maya lived.Then, as now, the milpa
was the main source of work and corn the staple food.The area around Orange Walk was also famous
in ancient times for its orchards of cacao trees and for its production of
honey.Their homes, as they still are
today in many places, were of sticks called “pimento” lashed together and
plastered with white marl.The roofs
were thatched with palm leaves.

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2.HOLPATIN

The Maya settlement which stood on the spot where Orange
Walk now stands was called, according to Thompson, Holpatin.Few traces of the Maya occupation are visible
today.No important artifacts or burial
sites have been found within the limits of the town.Whatever clues there might be lie buried
under the streets and houses of modern Orange Walk.The extent of ancient Holpatin
can only be guessed at, but two areas seem to indicate use by the Maya.The limestone hill on which the Post Office
stands has pottery shards and flint chips embedded in the exposed side facing
the river.Nearby is a steep hill in
which have been found several openings or caves large enough to admit a man and
going deep into the hillside.These are
said to contain pots of some sort.Shards and pieces of flint are common in this area too.

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These
two sites may have been pyramids or at least an indication of where Holpatin stood.They
are not more than a few hundred yards from each other and they overlook the
river in the direction of San Estevan where a
ceremonial center was located.

There are scores of house mounds in the area of Petville and the excavations at Cuello
nearby which show, when taken together with the other indications, that this
area was fairly well populated by the ancient Maya at some point in time.

Why the Maya chose to build here is a matter for
speculation.Perhaps the natural
limestone ridges attracted them in the same way that similar ridges attracted
them to Pozito and Nohmul.Perhaps their choice was influenced by the
fact that it lies just about half-way, by river, between the important
ceremonial center at IndianChurch (Lamanai)
and the capital city of ancient Acalan at Santa Rita
near Corozal.It may well have served as a resting place for canoes traveling between
these cities.

This capital was called Chetumal
and the state of Acalan was one of the League of Mayapan.This state
was on the side of the Cocom family during the civil
wars which enveloped the peninsula.It
became a haven for the resisters of the Spanish when the northern states fell
under their control.

When the Spanish made an attempt to conquer Chetumal between 1530 and 1550, some 200 warriors are
reported to have come down the New River to help defend their capital.At the time of the attack, ancient Chetumal had over 2,000 houses.One hundred years later the population seems
to have declined and most of the remaining groups of Maya withdrawn into the
bush.

When the British logwood cutters arrived in the mid
1600’s they raided the villages which they came across.They attempted to enslave the Indians, but
the Indians avoided them by moving to areas of the interior not under the
control of either the Baymen or the Spanish to the
north.

3.WOODCUTTERS1600 – 1730

During the late 1600’s or early 1700’s another group of
people began to use this highway to the sea.They came from England
in search of the logwood, which they found in abundance along the banks of the New
River.

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These
rugged and hardworking woodcutters began their work in August when a captain
and from ten to fifteen men set out from Belize in pit-pans or dories.They had been preceded by a huntsman who had
located the trees to be cut and who now led them there.

At first, the trees closest to the river were taken,
since they could be more easily removed.As time went by, however, the cutters had to go further into the
bush.The type of wood they cut changed
over the years from logwood, used as a dye, to mahogany, used in making fine
furniture.

When the woodcutters arrived at the area in which
they would work, they constructed a rough camp or “bank” where they lived and
where the stores were kept.The men
worked until November opening up rough logging roads to the trees and then
cutting the trees down.They returned to
Belize City for the Christmas holidays, and came back to the
logging site a month or two later.At
this time they worked at getting the logs to the river using ropes, with
smaller logs as rollers.Later on, after
1805, oxen were brought in to assist in this work.

At the bank the logs were squared off, marked with
the owner’s initials and chained together.With the first heavy rains of June, these rafts were floated down the
river to the boom – made up of logs chained across the mouth of the river.There they were sorted out and loaded onto
ships for transport to Europe.Orange Walk probably began as one of these riverside logging camps.As time went on, more and more logwood
cutters traveled the New River to reach uncut timber.Some of these men settled down on a more or
less permanent basis and the river camps became rough villages of thatched
houses and small farms.It was some ofthese early
settlers who named their village after a walk (plantation) of orange trees.

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4.THE SPANISH PROBLEM1730 – 1798

As the woodcutters spread out from Belize
City, they were given an increasingly hard time by the
Spanish government in Yucatan.The Spaniards claimed this area and wanted no
British woodcutters here at all.

In 1730 there were several logging camps along the New River when the Spanish sent a
force of soldiers to clear them out.They came up river from the Bay of Chetumal and upon reaching the
lagoon, crossed over land to Belize.They collected fifty prisoners on their way,
but this did not discourage the cutters.They begged England for protection from the
Spanish and at the same time moved back to their logging camps.

Again in 1745 the Spanish garrison sent soldiers up
the river to destroy logging camps.This
time the settlers fled in their boats to the island of Roatan, but still they did not
give up.They soon moved backand followed
their trade in peace until 1763, when the Spaniards forces made their third
excursion up the river forcing the cutters to abandon their camps and seek
refuge in Belize.Even after these three attacks, the
woodcutters did not give up.They
rebuilt their New River camps and continued as they had before.These early years of Orange Walk under the
constant threat of Spanish attach were not peaceful ones, but the woodcutters
were strong and independent men.They
were used to being free and to moving about as they wished.They were not easily discouraged, but then
neither were the Spanish.

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The
governor of Yucatan made two more attempts to
dislodge the British settlers, both by seaand both failures.In 1779 they attacked the settlement at St. George’sCaye.As a result, a treaty was signed with Spainwhich allowed the cutting of logwood in the area
of the New
River
but it also included many restrictions on the activities of the Baymen that they did not feel they could follow.So the Spanish made one last attempt to force
them out on the 10th of
September, 1798.This attack, again on St. George’sCaye,
was repulsed and the Spanish sailed away for good.

After the last attack, in 1763, on the New River logging settlements, Orange
Walk was left to develop in peace.It
saw the change from logwood to mahogany and the beginning of the chicle gathering industry.It observed the acquisition of huge areas of forest stretching south to
the lagoon and well into the foothills of Peten by
the British Honduras Company (later the Belize Estate and Produce
Company.)It attracted Maya settlers
from the interior and welcomed refugees from the north during the War of the
Castes.And as Orange Walk grew, the
slow and winding road to the sea which had brought brave Baymen
and Spanish soldiers, carried away on its flood vast mountains of mahogany.

5. THE WAR OF THE CASTES

COMES SOUTH

1847 – 1867

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The
twenty-five years between 1847 and 1872 were troubled ones for the people of
Orange Walk.The War of the Castes which
raged throughout Yucatan to the north,
gradually came closer and closer to the colony.The first concrete sign of the fighting was the flood of refugees across
the border.With them came the news of advancingwarriors,
and the border settlements were thrown into a panic.

The Icaiche and Santa Cruz
Indians were Maya tribes from the interior which had felt threatened by the
spread of Mexican control from the north and the invasion of their lands by the
Baymen from the south.Thus caught in the middle, they fought back
in various ways, under different leadersand with varying degrees ofintensity for over fifty years.

During the War of the Castes, the Indians obtained a
large part of their guns and ammunition from the British colony.This practice, through strongly protested
against by the Mexican authorities, continued through out this period and
substantially enriched the merchants engaged in this trade.Several Orange Walk firms, including that of
Escalante and Company, did very well.

Marcus Canul, an Icaiche chief, can be credited with bringing the war across
the border.He was encouraged by a
Mexican government decree in 1864, which claimed this area for Mexico.Also, the Icaichevillage of San Pedro Siris, located within the colony,
had been supplied by the British with arms to help protect the border but
instead, they welcomed Canul and his men, and joined
him in his efforts against the colonists.

Canul’s first action was his
capture of the logging camp called Qualm Hill in 1866.He held the inhabitants for $12,000 ransom,
but later released them to the British representative Mr. Von Ohlafen for $3,000 at Corozalito.

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This
caused much excitement in the colony, and the garrison at Orange Walk was
increased by eighty men.Two patrols
were then sent out against Canul, but neither was
successful.

The first of these, in September of 1866, was led byCaptainDelamere.This small
group found itself vastly outnumbered and it retreated.The second expedition at the end of December
was commanded by Major MacKay.This
detachment was ambushed just before reaching the village of San Pedro.After a brief fight against over 400ofCanul’s men, the British retreated with five dead and
sixteen wounded.In the confusion they
left behind equipment and ammunition, as well as the Civil Commissioner, Mr.
Rhys, who had accompanied them.

Naturally, all this military activity worried the
people of Orange Walk, especially in light of the British rout.Appeals were made for more help and
reinforcements were sent to the colony from Jamaica, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Harley.

In early 1867, Canul
captured IndianChurch, located on the New Riverlagoon.Several people in Orange Walk expressed a desire to move across the New River for greater protection, but
this was discouraged by the local authorities.Also in 1867, a village militia was raised and drilled and in 1868 a
Frontier Police Force was instituted to patrol the border.These two forces were in addition to the
garrison of soldiers of the West India Regiment which had the responsibility of
protecting the colony against Indian attacks.

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Lieutenant-Colonel
Harley set out against the Indians on February
9, 1867 with the augmented British forces.They attacked and burned the villages of San Pedro Siris
and San Jose, which had welcomed and given aid to Canul.This action
seems to have given the colonists much confidence.During the following two years of relative
peace, the “battle fever” died down, and people seemed certain that Canul would not return this way.The local militia was disbanded, the garrison
forcereduced, and the people allowed
to turn their attention to logging, farming and milpa
cultivation.Canul
did send an occasional note demanding rent for the land on which the colonists
lived and worked, but this did not cause the residents
of Orange Walk much worry.

6.BEFORE THE BATTLE

The yearsbetween 1867 and 1872 show a steady
decline in preparations for battle and in provisions against attack.Even as early as April of 1868, not long
after the burning of San Pedro, the townspeople seemed not to welcome the large
garrison in their midst.Lieutenant-Colonel
Harley complained to his superiors in Belize on April 2nd
that the local people refused to supply the soldiers with drinking water and
recommended that the soldiers be withdrawn if the situation continued that way.

The same month, a disastrous fire, accidentally
started by Commissariat Issnor’s wife while she was
cooking, burned down the barracks, the police station, several nearby houses
and part of the surrounding stockade.The barracks had been in poor shape anyway, with a roof that leaked and
a dirt floor that flooded when it rained.After the fire, the soldiers had to camp in tents on the parade grounds
and they also camped in the nearby Catholic chapel.The stockade was not rebuilt but the barracks
was.This new building stood about 30
yards from the river on a hill (in the vicinity of the present B.E.C.
building.)

In 1870, taking advantage of the withdrawal of some
of the soldiers from Corozal, Canul
and his men “captured” that town without a fight.This and the occasional word that the Indians
were passing nearby, showed that he was still
active.During this time also, the
British Honduras Company was attempting to remove the Icaiche
Indians from their lands.The Jesuit
priests who served the villages of San Pedro and San Jose, tries to help the Indians
remain where they had settled but they were unsuccessful.

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Orange Walk in 1872 was a small town of about
1,200.The population was made up of
Creole woodcutters and Mestizo small farmers (milperos) or storekeepers, with an upper class of English
managers and government officials.The
town centered on the parade grounds near which was
located the catholic chapel and the five buildings of the First West India
Regiment.The barracks was twenty by
sixty feet in size and had the two ends partitioned off.It had a thatched roof, “pimento” and stick
walls, and a board floor.The thirty-six
men of the garrison lived in this building while the officer and doctor had
their quarters on the other side.

To the west of the parade ground, the shops and
houses were located without much regard for orderly streets.On either side of the barracks were also
several thatched houses.(See map).

A word about firearms would add to an understanding
of how these battles were fought.The “Enfield” rifle was in general
use.This was a single-shot muzzle
loader.This means that after each shot,
the barrel had to be cleaned out, a new ball cartridge loaded through the mouth
of the gun and rammed down.Then a new
percussion cap was placed on the pin where the hammer would touch and the gun
was ready to fire.While reloading, the
soldier was defenseless except for his bayonet or knife.

7.THE BATTLE

(part one)

September
1st, 1872 began as an ordinary Sunday for the people of
Orange Walk.They spent the early
morning hours having breakfast and preparing for the day’s activities.They had learned to live with rumor of Indian
attacks, but on this particular morning, no one expected anything out of the
ordinary to happen.The previous day,
however, Marcus Canul and well over 150 of his men
had crossed over the Rio Hondo and were this morning headed right for Orange
Walk.

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Since
his last letters demanding renthad produced little response from
either the magistrate at Orange Walk or the Lieutenant-Governor in Belize City, perhaps Canul intended to collect what he felt was his due.He may have wanted to show the British that
he was still a powerful force to be feared and respected.He may have had in mind the 1864 Mexican
claim to the British Colony, or perhaps he wanted to retaliate for the
destruction of San Pedro Siris and San Jose.Whatever his reasons, his plan was clear.

When the peaceful morning was shattered by the
fierce screams of the attackers, punctuated by the noise of their rifles, the
people of Orange Walk must have realized immediately what was happening.For the wealthier residents, like Don Pancho Escalante, with strong houses, ammunition and guns,
making a stand against them would have been the obvious choice.But the poorer inhabitants could only get out
of the way as quickly as possible.Most
grabbed what they could and took the bush.Some women and children escaped by paddling dories across the river and
then walking through the bush to San Estevan.

The Indians moved in from three directions.One group, coming in from the west, attacked
the houses and stores.The other two
groups converged on the barracks; one taking up a position on the southeast
side, behind the piles of logwood and in the houses there, while the other took
cover in the houses to the southwest, making especially good use of a stone
house that stood on the corner.

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One
resident, a carpenter named John Haylock, lived in
one of the houses to the southeast.He
barely got his wife and little boy out the back door before eight or nine
Indians burst in the front door and began firing at the barracks through the
spaces in the wall.Haylock
was lucky enough to have hidden himself behind the mosquito netting of his
bed.He tells how the Indians spoke in
Maya and in Spanish, which he understood a little, indicating that Corozal was next.As
he lay hidden, the balls fired by the soldiers came through the walls and even
struck close enough to him to throw dirt in his face.

The only warning the soldiers had was the sound of
lead balls rattling against the walls of their barracks.Lieutenant Graham Smith and Staff Assistant
Surgeon Edge were taking their Sunday morning baths at the time in the
Officer’s Quarters to the west of the barracks.They barely had time to run to the barracks and were fired at on the
way.The lieutenant had pulled on his
trousers, but Doctor Edge was “in a state of nudity”.

The lieutenant reported, “at
about 8 A.M. on September 1st, I was bathing
when I heard the report of a gun and the whiz of a bullet along the road
running past the south end of the barracks room.I looked out the door of my house facing the
barracks and saw the corporal, of the old guard, which had just been relieved,
running towards me.He said, ‘ The Indians have come. ‘I repeated this to Doctor Edge, who was living in the same quarters with
me, then put on my trousers and ran across to the barrack room and got the men
under arms as quickly as possible.”

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The only soldiers with ammunition at that point were
those on guard duty.The rest of the
ammunition was in the portable magazine in the guard-room.Unfortunately, in his haste, the lieutenant
had forgotten the key to this chest, so he and Sergeant Edward Belizario had to brave the enemy gunfire to run across to
his house to get it.It was something of
a miracle that both of them arrived back at the barracks unscathed.

Nor was this their only problem.The guard-room could not be entered without
going outside.Sergeant Belizario volunteered once again to go out and to tryto bring the
magazine around.He managed to drag the
heavy box about halfway back, but he could not get it
any further.He then had to open the box
where it was and pass the ammunition bags over the wall to the men inside, all
while being shot at by the Indians.Even
though the magazine was hit many times ( it was
afterwards described as being “starred with white splashed of leaden bullets”)
he reaches safety without a scratch on him.

The barracks had not been constructed for use as a
fort.The enemy bullets came right
through the walls.The soldiers had to
use their iron bedsteads for additional protection inside.Even so, fully one third were wounded during
the battle and one man was hit four times.Afterwards over 300 bullet holes were counted in the walls and in some
places even the thatch had been shot away.

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Once
the soldiers were armed andthe battle under way, the lieutenant battle under way, the
lieutenant took up a rifle and began firing out the door on the western
side.Beside him stood
Private Robert Lynch.Within
minutes both had been hit; the lieutenant receiving a serious wound in his left
side and the private falling dead.Although Smith continued in command as long as he could, he eventually
had to hand it over to Sergeant Belizario and Doctor
Edge.(The latter was a non-combatant,
but was the only other officer and Englishman in the detachment.)

Private George Bidwell was
the only soldier who had not been able to reach the barracks before the siege
began.He had just been assigned to duty
at the stores shed and fought from this position until the Indians took over
the buildings.He then used his bayonet
on one of them and made a run for Escalante’s yard.From there he fired at the Indians until his
ammunition ran out.He informed Don Pancho that he was going across to the barracks for more
and was fatally shot on the way.Driving
off the Indians, but their elation was tempered by the sight of the burned and
looted houses and stores, and the number of dead and wounded. Then too they had no way of knowing if or when
the Indians would return.The next day,
in fact, the rumor was spread that the Indianswere on their way back.The people were ready for them this time, but
the rumor proved false.

A message for help was sent to Belize, but it took two days for
it to reach there.When it came, the
Lieutenant-Governor, William Wellington Cairns directed the commander of the
First West India Regiment, Major Johnston, “to proceed without loss of time to
Orange Walk where the Indians are reported to have attacked the garrison,
captured the Magistrate, and set fire to the houses.”He went on to declare martial law in the
Northern District and to direct that any Icaiche
found on British territory be treatedas the Queen’s enemies.He sent his launch with a detachment of 20
men under Captain F. White which arrived in Orange Walk at midnight on the 4th
of September, Major Johnston arrived the next day with another detachment of 53
officers and men, but the Indians had long since crossed back into Mexican
territory.

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The
conduct of the soldiers during the battle received high praise from the
residents and the military and governmental authorities.Lt. Smith, Dr. Edge, and Lance Corporals
Spencer and Stirling were all promoted as a
result of their valor.Sgt. Belizario was given a distinguished conduct medal and
several of the Privates were highly commended.

One of the
residents wrote of them, “I have nothing to say but what rebounds to their
credit … as British Soldier; and if medals and crosses were distributed among
the dusky warriors… all that I can say is that every one of the brave
fellows…would be entitled to a medal at least.”9.THE FORTS

In the years following the battle with Canul,
despite the news of his death and the declarations of peace made by his
successors, the chief concern of the people of Orange Walk was protection from
Indian attack.Within four years, Orange
Walk had been fortified by two forts. These were built outside what was then the limits of the village.They were named after men who had served as
Lieutenant-Governors during this period. (Major Robert Mundy from 1874 to 1876
and William Wellington Cairns from 1870 to 1874)

FortMundy was completed two years
after the battle, in 1874.Although built
to overlook the river, this not an actual fort like FortCairns.It was a simple wood and masonry fence
erected to protect the goal, police station and courthouse.It was under the command of the Police Force.

The old courthouse, shown on the map of 1887, served
well up into this century when the new onewas built.It had living quarters for the magistrate
upstairs, and the courtroom downstairs.

In 1878, FortMundy was very nearly lost to
fire.The area around the fort had not
been kept clear and the houses had been built quite close by.The “ready and able aid” of the West India
Regiment under Captain Hill savedthe fort.The Lieutenant-Governor at that time, Sir
Fredrick P. Barlee, sent these men his thanks for
their bravery and a fifty dollar reward.The survey map of 1888 shows the lands within a 150
foot radius of the fort having been purchased from residents of Orange Walk
(including F. Escalante, E. Cervantes, and
Eugenia Gonzalez) by “Barlee”.

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The Police Force that manned this fort numbered 17
men in 1882 with one, Robert Wallen, having been on
the force since 1863. (When he retired in 1888, he ran the ferry named the “Scoro” which operated across the New River near the fort.

Before 1880, the Sergeant of Police was also the
Postmaster.He complained that the two
jobs were too much for one man to handle with the result that a Mr. Smith was
appointed that year as the first Postmaster in Orange Walk.

FortCairns was completed in 1876, most
likely having been built by the men of the West India Regiment.This was a true fort consisting of a ditchwhich enclosed
earthworks.These were surmounted by a
stout wooden fence or stockade.The fort
had a single gate on the eastern side which could be closed off by means of
drawbridge.On the southeast and
northwest corners were masonry bastions the remains of which can be clearly
seen today, as can the remains of the earthworks and moat.The bastion afforded the defenders crossfire
along the walls in the event of an attack.Around the fort, the perimeter was kept clear even well up into this
century to deprive attackers of cover from which to fire upon the soldiers.

The northern part of this perimeter was used as a parade grounds and was faced by three barrack
buildings, and St. Peter’s Anglican Church.This field, now used for football, is still called “the barracks”.When it was active, FortCairns was under the command of
the West India Regiment.

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10.THE TOWN

In 1880

In 1881, Orange Walk was established as a separate
district from Corozal.The population had risen rapidly during the
years preceding and following the battle, adding a large number of Mestizo “Yucatecan”
to the previously Creole and white population.This appears to have caused some conflicts as the Lieutenant-Governor
expressed his concern in 1873 that the two groups
learn to live together in peace.Another
letter to the Governor from the police noted that although the Creoles would
help the police, the Yucatecans would not.

The growing town of Orange Walk had two bars in 1882, owned
by F. Escalante and J.W. Price.The
latter also held a license to make rum.The license book for that year also lists fourteen horses and one mule.There were eleven shops including those of Hopun, C. Briceño, W. Smith, and
J. Alpuche.

The main occupations of the townspeople during these
years were logging, chicle gathering, milpa cultivating ( or subsistence
farming) and ranching which included the raising of cattle and of sugar cane
for rum.These occupations tended to be
limited to one class of people.The
ranchers, the upper class, were of European ancestry either refugee Spanish,
local English or Confederate American.The merchants were also in this group.The logging workers were, and still are, largely Creole while the milperos were Mestizo or Indian
in background.

One of the biggest employers in the District was the
Belize Estate and Produce Company, which had been formed in 1875 from the
former British Honduras Company.This
company owned vast tracts of timber land along the New River south from Orange Walk,
including the New River Lagoon.

11.THE CATHOLIC

CHURCH

The dramatic influx of Spanish and Mestizo
Catholics met with a corresponding increase in the activity of the church in
Orange Walk.Although
the people of the New River had been served by various priests on a missionary basis, the
first to be sent here as pastor was Father Alphonse Parisi,
an Italian Jesuit.He served
Orange Walk from 1875 to 1880.His
church, which had been built sometime before 1872, was a simple thatched
structure located near the present Pallotine
convent.Several years
before his arrival it had served the soldiers as a barracks.

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FatherParisi started the first school in
Orange Walk in 1876 and appliedto the
government for aid in running it.This
aid was to be given, the Governor noted when he agreed
to assist, as long as a resident, English-speaking priest was in charge.As a sign of encouragement, the Governor even
sent prizes to be distributed to the children.

Father Parisi was replaced
by Father Chiarello, S.J. who servedfor two years.Father P.J. Piemonte
replaced him and served as pastor until 1886 when he returned to Spain to complete his studies.

Father Pastor Molina was a Yucatecan
priest sent north because he could speak Maya.He served this area from 1885 to 1890 and made visits to the Icaiche tribes across the border.The Register he kept shows that he traveled
almost constantly.

Father Piemonte came back
and worked in various parts of Belize until 1897 when he returned
to Orange Walk.In 1898 he supervised
the building of a convent and invited the Sisters of the Third Order of Mt.
Carmel from New Orleans to live in it and run the
school.Sister Apoline
and three other sisters arrived in Orange Walk on February
20, 1899, and opened two schools: a public school with 124 students and a
select school with 35.Due to sickness,
the sisters had to return to New Orleans a year after their arrival.
They did not return.

22

The
building of the granite monument that stands in front of the present church was
also directed by Father Piemonte.It was brought in pieces by boat and erected
to mark the beginning of the Holy Year and of the 20th century.It bears the names of the devoted citizens of
Orange Walk including Mrs. P. Price, the Ayuso and
Escalante families and the Hon. J.M. Rosado.Also there is Father Piemonte’s name.

The turn of the century and the unveiling of the
monument was celebrated by people from all over the
area at an outdoor Mass at midnight on December 31st, 1899.There were so many people that it took
overan hour to distribute
Communion.Just six months after this
celebration, Father Piemonte died and was buried in
Orange Walk with great ceremony and devotion.He was 47 years old.He had begun
work on the new La Inmaculada Church ( the present ediface) but it was
up to his successor, Father Joseph Muffles, to complete this task.

FatherMuffles was assigned to Orange walk in May of 1900, and
with the death of Father Piemonte in June, began his
twenty-one year pastorship of the OrangeWalk church – an extraordinary record of
service.He was highly regarded by his
people and still remembered for his dedication.

12.THE RIVERBOATS

Before the construction of the road to Belize
City in 1925, the river provided the highway and chief
means of communication with the outside world.Over land travel on horseback was arduous and slow.River travel was not much faster.Until the invention of the steam engine, it
consisted of boats that had to be paddled or rowed.

The earliest mention of larger vessels traveling the river
is that of the launch sent by the Governor following the battle in 1872.A boat called the “Pioneer” was in regular
service in 1875, and might have been one of the first to run the regular route
between Belize City, Corozal and Orange Walk, with stops at the villages along
the way.The “Fredie
M.” was carrying mail when it was wrecked near Corozal
in 1895.

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The turn of the century ushered in the golden age of the
northern steamers.One of the earliest
boats of this period was an unnamed one owned by Katherine A. Leitch.This
eighty-foot steam vessel carried ten cabin and forty deck passengers.The "“Egarton”
(a 114 foot, twin-engined vessel) was licensed in
1914 and the “Star” (a two-decker) was licensed in
1916.The “Star” took a day and a half
to reach Belize City from Orange
Walk.In 1920, the “Star” carried fifty
men of the Volunteer Guard into Belize
for a shooting competition.

24

Perhaps the best-known vessel was the “Africola”
(72 tons) owned by L.G. Chavannes and registeredin
1922.She left Belize
on Mondays at noon for Corozal and the New River, with
stops at Pueblo Nuevo, Caledonia and San Estevan.She
returned to Belize
on Thursdays.The First Class fare was
$6.50 and the Second Class fare was $3.25.Freight charges included $0.50 for a bag of rice, $0.10 for a box of
candles, $0.40 for a bag of corn, and $0.25 for a block of chicle.

Besides carrying the mail and passengers, the river
steamers brought in to Orange Walk; rice, boxes of condensed milk, drums of
oil, kegs ofbutter, candles, salt,
flour, barrels of pork and pigtail, and (carefully packed into barrels) bottles
of Chavannes Lemonade; the real “Afri-Kola”
for which the boat was named.It carried
back to the City: chicle in blocks (each stamped with
the owner’s initials) corn in sacks, green avocados and ripe pineapples,
oranges, bananas, and watermelons from San Estevan.From the mill of J.W. Price came brown sugar
in 100 pound sacks.From Caledonia
came pigs, alligator skins, and tobacco leaves bound into bundles.And from the Gonzalez distillery came fifteen
and twenty-five gallons casks of “Taste-Tells” rum.With the construction of the road to the City
in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, it was only a matter of a few years before
the slow-moving steamers were replaced by trucks.The “Chapulin” was
the last steamer in regular service.It
was owned by R.S. Turton and registered in 1923.It carried six First Class or cabin
passengers and twenty Second Class or deck passengers.The “Chapulin” made
its final voyage in 1939 under Captain Felipe Magaña.

Spectacular scenes brightened up the years between 1900
and 1939, not the least of which was the destruction by fire of the “City of Belize”
while it was tied up at the wharf in Orange Walk in 1911 or 1912.The "E.M.L.” was a smaller boat, which
figured heavily in the history of the country as the cause of the loss of a
Catholic Bishop.The “E.M.L.” was on its
way to Orange Walk on April 10, 1923,
with Bishop Hopkins and three Pallotine sisters when
it sank while nearing the Bay of Corozal.He is said to have spent his last moments
seeing that the women and children got what life jackets there were on
board.The Bishop and two of the sisters
were drowned.

Long time residents mention two other boats as traveling
to Belize from
Orange Walk on a regular basis: the “Florin” and a boat
called the “L.G.C.”(or
L.A.C.)

Orange Walk was also the terminal for another fleet of
boats – those operated by the Belize Estate and Produce Company in its logging
operations.Two of the earlier company
boats were the paddle wheeled steamer “Don Felipe” of 24 tons (registered in
1890) and the “Alpha” a stern paddle-wheeler in service about the same time.

The “Ella” was a motor schooner of 59 tons, registered in
1903 by the Belize Estate and Produce Company, which later sold it to the
Escalante family of Orange Walk.It was
used to haul out logs and after it had outlived its usefulness, it was driven
up a creek in the vicinity of Trial Farm and burned.

Though the New River still serves
as a highway for the rafts of logs, and for the barges of sugar and molasses
produced at Tower Hill, the time when it was the sole link with the rest of the
world has long passed and the northern steamer has become the stuff of history.

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REFERENCES

Following is a partial list of references for this
book.Published articles, books,
archival materials, and Survey Department maps are listed,
however, I have made no attempt to list unpublished materials or the results of
my own interviews and investigations.

Note:N.S. stands for the BISRA publication
“BELIZEAN STUDIES” once called “NATIONAL STUDIES”

Archival materials: various letters and reports from
Orange Walk 1800 to 1872.